I just signed up for iTunes match and went through the steps of all the matching and everything, but when I play back my music it still sounds like the low quality songs I had before the scan. Even songs that are available in the iTunes store. Also am I now able to delete the songs off my hard drive to free up space? Thanks!

If a song is matched, it won't be automatically upgraded on your hard disk - you have to delete the local copies and re-download.

Just delete them (don't set the "also delete from iCloud" checkbox!) and then click the cloud icon to re-download in the upgraded format, or you can stream it without downloading (which will will also use the upgraded format)

__________________Tell a man there are 300 billion stars in the universe and he'll believe you. Tell him a bench has wet paint on it and he'll have to touch it to be sure. ~Murphy's Law

If a song is matched, it won't be automatically upgraded on your hard disk - you have to delete the local copies and re-download.

Just delete them (don't set the "also delete from iCloud" checkbox!) and then click the cloud icon to re-download in the upgraded format, or you can stream it without downloading (which will will also use the upgraded format)

Thank you for your response, I was gonna take my iTunes library and stick it on an external hard drive Just in case. So that's what I'll so then. Back it up on external HD then delete off my main PC. Also should I leave iTunes match switched to on for this process? On my PC and my IOS devices? Thank you!